


What You Can’t Speak About

by idrilhadhafang



Series: Sequel Trilogy Missing Scenes [14]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Angst and Tragedy, Dark, Gen, Grogu | Baby Yoda Needs a Hug, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mentioned Grogu | Baby Yoda, Missing Scene, Needles, Pershing Isn’t So Bad In This, Plague, Playing With Syringes, The Mandalorian (TV) Season 2 Spoilers, snoke backstory, with Grogu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-12 12:07:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29010261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: How was Snoke created?
Relationships: Snoke & Pershing
Series: Sequel Trilogy Missing Scenes [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1931056
Kudos: 4
Collections: Trope Bingo: Round Sixteen





	What You Can’t Speak About

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Free Space — Secret Twin/Doppelgänger
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.
> 
> Author’s Notes: So, spoilers for The Mandalorian...

When Dr. Pershing finds the boy, he’s a sickly thing, his parents having given him up to Dr. Pershing willingly if only because they thought there would be a cure for his sickness.   
  
“He’s just a child,” his mother pleads. Her eyes, blue and vulnerable, speak volumes. Pershing has felt that before. Back when he was part of the Empire proper, he had a fondness for children — genuine fondness, nothing creepy or with a hidden agenda. Something about the fact that they thought the best of you even in a dark galaxy. Something about the fact that they had such excitement and belief.   
  
Pershing isn’t just doing this for Moff Gideon. He isn’t just doing it for the Remnant. Even as he looks at the mother, her eyes full of things that the New Republic doesn’t _speak_ about, he feels something that the Empire isn’t expected to feel: compassion.   
  
Does the New Republic not think that he can feel? Does it seem so unbelievable that an Imperial can bleed the same and weep the same? Of course they don’t think he can feel. But Pershing feels anyway.   
  
Pershing nods. “The lab will do what they can,” he says. The plague on Milara — how is the New Republic simply not addressing it? How do they not see?   
  
The mother blinks. Then, “Don’t be afraid, Aldric,” she says to her son. “We will see you again soon.”  
  
“Aldric?” Pershing says.   
  
“It’s Milaran,” says his father. "Our boy...take care of him. Bring him back.”  
  
Pershing doesn’t even know if Aldric will survive.   
  
_How can I do this?_  
  
***  
  
The boy’s wrapped in plastic, a horrible twisted thing even as med droids place him on the operating table. Pershing doesn’t know what Moff Gideon’s fascination is with soldiers that Just Should Not Be (Pershing is not superstitious, but he knows it’s wrong. You can’t just shove the Force into someone’s body), but he does what he’s told.  
  
“There’s a strange green thing,” Aldric rasps. It’s the first time that Pershing’s heard him speak, an odd sound that chills him. Though, perhaps, that could be because sickness is poisoning his lungs, his body.   
  
“There’s no one there,” Pershing says.   
  
“No, I see it in your mind. Light rises and darkness to meet it...”  
  
Pershing freezes. He doesn’t miss how clear Aldric’s eyes are. Just for a moment.   
  
Too clear. Clear as the sky.   
  
“You’re telepathic?”  
  
“It’s the Force,” Aldric says. “I see everything. There’s a man named Snoke. That’s who I become.”  
  
Pershing wonders if that was the problem with other subjects that have rejected other Force users’ blood (blood from old corpses. From even living Jedi such as Cal Kestis and Ezra Bridger). Why the subjects rejected the blood and died.   
  
“I’ll help you,” he says. “The Empire was supposed to bring peace, freedom, justice and security. That’s what I’ll do.”  
  
***  
  
Even though capturing the Child is necessary, Pershing doesn’t like the idea of killing him. Even putting aside the fact Moff Gideon specifically wanted the Child alive, Pershing hates the idea of draining an innocent baby of its blood.   
  
He’s gentle with the Child. He still hates the way the Child whimpers when the blood’s taken. No one likes needles. Even less when they’re being used in this context.   
  
The Child is just a child, and so is Aldric. The future Snoke — whatever that means. For some reason, Pershing feels chills go up his spine considering it, like a cold wind has burst through the room.   
  
***  
  
It’s enough blood. Pershing’s already frustrated at recording his log long after the Child’s rescue by the Mandalorian, and Aldric is ailing. There is something in Pershing that wonders: if he can’t do his job, as a doctor, what good is he?  
  
Pershing isn’t soft, or naive. It doesn’t mean that the idea of failing a child doesn’t hurt him.   
  
“It’ll...end horribly,” Aldric rasps. “Kill me...”  
  
It’s a good thing Pershing is wearing a mask treating Aldric. But he shakes his head. “I’m not letting you die if it’s at all possible to save you.”  
  
The blood works. Aldric lives. Pershing saved a life. Perhaps he doomed a future. But saving a child...he can live with dooming a future if he saved a life. 


End file.
